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Great fun episode. I liked how James did so well in this episode, and how Meowth delivered on his promise. I thought it was sweet how Dawn didn't like her victory over Mario because it was too easy.{like Ash}

Strange, James is the fictional character I know that can crossdress, yet still come off kind of like a badass. Having Carnivine use vine whip to slam Mamoswine was brutal.

Ok first of all, this was such a relief to see a contest after a while, and the music that was played during piplup's appeal I love and it always seems to get me a bit emotional as it reminds me of aspiration.

But something that frustrates me is that someone mentioned a balanced team for dawn. A team doesnt have to be balanced in a contest as type advantage doesnt matter due to the length of the battle stages. You pick a contest team in terms of style, not type so I believe that a contest team can be whatever combination you like, as long as you can make it work in a contest. (Rant over)

But great episode, good to see james win this contest as it does show he has some contest finese. (If contests continue into the next generation anime, I could see james entering and looking back on this moment as it did spark some kind of fire in his heart when everyone loved his appeal with meowth - ooo how great that would be, a team rocket rivalry in contests :P)

Loves every part of pokemon, loves the movies, the anime and every game, so you could call me fan lol.

Great episode, I also loved the music in Dawn's appeal, much better than the Japanese version.

Originally Posted by Orton155

But something that frustrates me is that someone mentioned a balanced team for dawn. A team doesnt have to be balanced in a contest as type advantage doesnt matter due to the length of the battle stages.

I think he was right since Dawn had a Mamoswine and 4 small pokemon with her. But I agree with you about it, despite she could not win this contest.

James is always so awkward as a girl. Yet, I love it. And the soup makes me hungry.

Sinnoh is really like the losing saga. Ash has lost so many times with these gym leaders than ever before. Same with Dawn and contests. But I don't really mind since it extends the saga and is unpredictable. Especially the fact James actually won against a "terp." (had to say it)

I just watched it, and I have to say, they are really pushing for advertising the release of HGSS. Did anyone else notice that every pokemon involved in the contest was from Johto? Other than Dawns Piplup, Mamoswine, James Carnivine, and Ashs Pikachu and Grotle, there was a Granbull, Shuckle, Tyrogue, Meganium, Hitmontop, Magby, Flaaffy, and others off the top of his head.

Other than that, Mamoswine completely flipping out was quite good. It being its first contest was good too.

Yes, that's Pokemon at its best! A really great episode and a pleasure to watch!

The best thing certainly was the idea of James disguising himself as Jessie. A refreshing change of pace! I love whenever the writer come up with new ideas and surprising twist and turns! That's how it should be. Keep it up.

I hadn't seen the episode before, but when I noticed that "Jamesalina" (I hereby claim the copyright for this word if it hasn't been invented yet ) would choose Meowth for the appeal round, it was crystal-clear to me what kind of performance Meowth would do! Of course, he would do what he's best at and that strategy sure paid off.
Nice reference to Christopher, the noodle shop guy from DP 117 "Noodles! Roamin' off!" !

Moreover, this episode once again showed why James is the secret mastermind of the Rocket trio. If he weren't a member of said team, I bet you that he would be a highly successful trainer, and I dare say perhaps even a gym leader.

But I was also impressed by Dawn's performance, especially the Ice Armor strategy. She wiped the floor with the first contestant, but unfortunately lost to Jamesalina which was really a pity. Using that move, albeit not a brand new one, she would have deserved to come at least second. And the match between them could easily have been a nerve-racking and worthy final match, but well, the writers decided otherwise.

As I said at the beginning, this sure was a fascinating and excellent episode. If I lived in the US, I'd be honored to stand up early for such great entertainment.
7.5 out of 10 points

I gotta say, the dubbed version really made me appreciate the story more than the original version. I loved that they decided to keep the original title-card music like they did in the Togepi episode, and most of the music sounded like the original. I thought that the scene with Piplup being jealous of the attention Cyndaquil was getting was cute. At least it shows that the writers aren't focusing too much on Piplup and more on Johto Pokemon for HG/SS promotion. Jessie's sick voice was also good, it sounded believable.

As for the Contest, there were a LOT of Johto Pokemon. I know it was also done to promote HG/SS but it got to the point of almost being obsessive, I wasn't a fan. Nice to see Lyra compliment Dawn, and even Ash had a lot of confidence in her from the start, and that high five was really sweet. I liked Lyra's comment, "Like two peas in a pod". It pretty much describes Ash and Dawn. Seeing Lyra compliment "Jessie's" dress was odd though, since it doesn't look cute. James' girly voice made me laugh, he should really cross-dress move often

I was impressed that Meowth showed a lot of intensity right before the appeal rounds even began. Brock seemed to know a lot about Contests while explaining them to Corey which was a surprise, I didn't think he cared. Dawn's appeal was almost dreadfully boring, I'm surprised she made it to the next round. James' was awesome since Meowth was using it's claws to shred the dough into raman, it was original. I thought the final battle between James and Dawn really showed how Dawn lacks control of her Pokemon even though they've trained for a long time. At least Jessie got her ribbon. 8/10

Well, Brock traveled with May and now Dawn- he'd better have picked up something! Even Ash the Oblivious could probably give at least a basic description of how they work. (Especially since he's been in a few.)

And Dawn can control most of her Pokemon. Mamoswine just has a few too many issues for someone with her level of experience to handle.

Walk a little further off the beaten path
And we’ll drive on even if we get there last
Our backs against the wall and we will lunge and bite
And we’ll rage, rage, rage against the dying of the lightHere And Now by Great Big Sea

This is probably a big episode for Dawn and for Team Rocket of course. It shows Dawn isn't a cry baby anymore but we'll see if she's this Mature after the GF loss and I really, really like the fact that Dawn is allowed to lose to lesser characters even some as low as Team Rocket even though she's a main character. This lesson will only serve to help Mamoswine in the future. Overall a good episode for Team Rocket to win, even though Jessie didn't actually win this one herself.

If you ask me, I think James had the win planned right from the start.

First off, he knew that Meowth's talent of being able to make noodles was good and unique enough to have the judges give them the pass. Meowth didn't need to show off, he just had to do what he does best. That alone was good enough.

Next, James knew that Dawn's strategy completely relied on Ice Shard. After taking Mamoswine's Ice Shard, he just had to get her angry and the match was his.

I await the day James quits Team Rocket. He'll definitely be one powerful trainer after that.

This episode was ok. Not into the contest episodes, but I still watch anyways. Dawn's contest went quite horribly. One of her worst ones.

My First Ever Level 100 Team:

My Current Level 100 Team: ;635; ;598;

70% of the Serebii population uses ultra powerful legendaries(also known as ubers) in their teams.
If you are one of the 30% that thinks outside the box
and doesn't use ubers, copy and paste this into your signature! (^started by SapphireL!)

Also Lyra keeps trying to get Ash and Dawn together! Ash doesn't get what she meant though...

Oh and it was a bit inconsistent that Lyra and Khoury doesn't know about contest, but there are supposed to happen in Johto (May and rivals went there for them). Don't you think?

Just because contest exist in Johto, doesn't mean that Lyra and Khoury have to know about them. After all, we're lead to believe that Contest have been around for years since Dawn's mother did Contest when she was younger, but Ash didn't know about contest until he reached Hoenn. And if you remember, in the first episode where they showed contest, May didn't even know about them yet. Lets not forget that Kanto had a Battle Frontier when Ash went through to get his first 8 badges, but he knew nothing about Battle Facilities until after Hoenn.

Anyway, I thought this episode was great. Every Pokemon, aside from those owned by the main characters were Johto Pokemon. Mamoswine's Ice power-up was awesome, but I'm glad that Dawn didn't win this one. Just because Mamoswine has begun to listen to her, that shouldn't mean that his temper shouldn't be shown anymore. This just shows that Dawn and Mamoswine still have some work to do, though this was Dawn's 9th contest and she still only has 4 ribbons...

Anyway, James was great. He took advantage of Mamoswine's weakness, his temper, and got Jessie her third ribbon.

Just because contest exist in Johto, doesn't mean that Lyra and Khoury have to know about them. After all, we're lead to believe that Contest have been around for years since Dawn's mother did Contest when she was younger, but Ash didn't know about contest until he reached Hoenn. And if you remember, in the first episode where they showed contest, May didn't even know about them yet. Lets not forget that Kanto had a Battle Frontier when Ash went through to get his first 8 badges, but he knew nothing about Battle Facilities until after Hoenn.

I understand your logic. Yet when Ash went through Kanto, the BF didn't exist in the games so they had to pretend it has been around for a lot of time.

Yet these characters appeared after it was known Johto had contest, so i just mean they should be at least rarely familiar with it. Of course they don't know the depth of it, being a trainer and a breeder, but they act like it is something they never heard about before. About May i guess you're right, but let's remember she wasn't interested in Pokemon at all, just travel.

Anyway, just an observation, probably not worth thinking to much about it.

I didn't think James would win, but it appeared that he did. When I saw Mamoswine get upset, I knew Dawn would lose the contest. It was a good episode, though at least Team Rocket needs to catch up in Contest Ribbons.

Great episode and yay for some rocketshipping being included as well. James did well and i saw the noodle guy as well
Poor mamoswime though but ill know that he will learn and get better. I liked piplups jealousy over Cyndaquil though hehe

Great episode and yay for some rocketshipping being included as well. James did well and i saw the noodle guy as well
Poor mamoswime though but ill know that he will learn and get better. I liked piplups jealousy over Cyndaquil though hehe

James did an awesome job for Jess. James knew Dawn's weakness in her combination and he took advantage of that. Also, Jessie's sick voice actually sounded sick. That was nice. Poor Dawn. Mamoswine not listening is pretty embarrassing.

James did surprisingly well, I thought he was going to be usual James and accidentally screw up everything but he won. Dawn needs to get a better grip on Mamoswine, that loss was simply embarrassing. Good episode.